Everlasting Goldfishers

I seem to have had incredible luck with certain things that many people can't help but kill--plants...relationships...and recently, goldfish.

I got back to my room today after being gone for about 10 days. Before leaving, I fished a goldfish out of a toilet on one of the other floors. We're technically just supposed to flush them...but he was so cute and, well, shiny, that I decided he deserved a fighting chance. I filled up a bowl that I have with clean water, stuck some marbles in the bottom, grabbed a few baby spider plants off a plant that I got from my best friend's mom...you know, for oxygen! I then crumbled up a few pieces of stale cheerio into the bottom, and wished the fish a happy life, and a Merry Christmas.

I walked into my room fully expecting him to be dead in the bowl. Sad as it might be, I could at least feel alright flushing a dead fish...I mean, at least he wasn't alive, right? Well, my little fishy friend was and is alive as ever. He was stuck in a bowl with less than half the water that I originally put in there, and no more cheerio, but he's alive and kickin'.

That's where my story continues. The thing is, all the fish I've ever had are hearty fish. I went to a fair with a guy named Alex when I was living in California, and we managed to win one of those silly little goldfish from the game where you have to toss a ping pong ball into the fish bowl. Well, that fish lived in my house for about 5 months, and then we had to move, so I gave the fish to his little sister. I talked to her again about a year later, and the fish was still alive..swimming in the fish tank with all her other fish, just as not-dead as ever.

Last year, I swiped a fish from the big dance they do here. They put them on the tables, and then they just flush them all afterwards, so I decided just to take one. I took the whole little bowl, snuck it home, transplanted the fish into a cup of my own, and then returned the rest of the stuff to where I'd gotten it...just sans fish. This fish lived in the office of our building, and bore the name of the general manager of housing for our area...after all, you can't flush the manager, right? After a little while, my Hall Advisor said we should probably get rid of it, and she gave it to a brother nearby. At last word, which was about 7-9 months later, that fish too was also alive and kickin'.

So now I've created a problem for myself. Not only did the fish live, now I'm attached. He's managed to survive 10 days on his own in a little bowl in my room with nothing but plants for oxygen and stale cheerio for food, and he survived for a few days in a Dorm Toilet. Can I really just end this guy's life with a singular non-caring trip down the porcelain basin?

I just don't think I have it in me. If you want a fish, let me know, this one is apparently hearty.